Do you really think that the factory would allow their satellite bikes to have the same performance????

I see this suggestion a lot, and not sure what to make of it.

Sure, humans are manipulative little beings and will do a lot to preserve pride, save face or whatever.

However ... apart from possible efforts in that direction from the factory engineers, why would it be in, say, Factory Yamaha's interest to nobble Crutchlow's bike, even slightly?

Might any difference between the factory and satellite Yamahas not be down to resources: the factory team is developing the bike from the feedback of Lorenzo and to a lesser extent Rossi, and chooses not to spread its efforts so far as to give new parts to Crutchlow for testing.

Rather, Crutchlow gets stuff the others have tested and liked. No?

So, on a factory team, it would not be so much that Crutchlow's bike was better, but that he would have more of a say in developing it.

After all, "better" at this level is very fine margins and a very individual thing. As we've seen, Lorenzo thinks his present chassis is better but Rossi has tried it and prefers his own shorter set-up.